Last week I wrote about the difference in the way Africa was perceived during the 2005 G8 summit versus the way it is being viewed this year, as a serious place to explore doing business. Today the Washington Post went one step further, running a Business section front-page piece about how emerging economies--Russia, Kenya, India--are acting as anchors amid the economic turmoil that's making life difficult for us right now in developed countries. The argument is almost always made the other way around: "If we're not careful, instability in X or Y developing country will spill over into our economy." This is quite a role reversal:

As global wealth has shifted during the past decade, emerging markets have become not only increasingly stable but they have also been claiming a larger portion of the world's riches than ever before. If Californians are rushing to withdraw money from banks there, the situation in Kenya is just the opposite: People are flocking to banks to open accounts. The Nairobi exchange, which lists mostly Kenyan companies and a handful of multinational firms, posted 10 percent gains in the three months ended in June as local and foreign investors flocked to the initial public offering of the cellphone giant Safaricom.

"I don't think there has been any impact," said Peter Wachira, a manager with AIG Global Investment in Nairobi, referring to the market turmoil. "Where markets in developed countries have been going down, ours has been going up."

To be sure, there has been an impact in many emerging economies, like China. But, arguably, the slowdown has been good for China, whose red-hot economy, driven largely by exports and foreign investment, needs an external brake to help it to grow at a sustainable pace and protect against eventual inflation and other overheating-related dangers.

It must seem strange to Americans to see other countries doing well while we, along with our prosperous traditional allies like Britain and Germany, struggle. I hope that, instead of provoking a protectionist reaction, Americans will see this role reversal as a greater incentive to toward openness with countries that are outside of our comfort zone.

Even the hint that an African country acts as a financial anchor in the world economy is pretty radical shift for Americans raised on pictures of starving African children.